Tampa Police officers will no longer alert landlords of tenant arrests.
The city's police chief introduced a new crime prevention program at Thursday's council meeting, developed after the agency was criticized for unfairly targeting residents.
Interim chief Ruben Delgado told city council members that the new initiative merges existing prevention programs and will allow community members to track police activity on an online dashboard.
The program replaces the city's Crime-Free Multi-Housing program, which alerted landlords when tenants were arrested. Civil rights groups criticized its practice of encouraging landlords to evict residents based on arrests and not convictions.
Councilman Luis Viera said he supports the new initiative.
"But it's got to be done in a way that doesn't have these unintended consequences that we saw in the old program, that again puts police officers in bad situations that I don't believe they signed up for and that worsens existing social inequalities," he said.
Delgado said the new program will focus on preventing crime in both Tampa's neighborhoods and businesses.
Residents and other community members will be able to track police activity on an online dashboard, he said. The system should be available on the city's website by the end of the year.
